A Better Place
by MarauderWitch
Summary: "Remus Lupin stopped himself from sighing. The bed under him cracking as his wife shifted her position ceaselessly beside him. A thing she did when worried. Due to his desperate need to worry about everything, she had made it clear that he should not interfere. Well, he would not, unless it seemed obvious he needed to." One-shot. Written for The Quidditch League Competition.


**A Better Place**

Remus Lupin stopped himself from sighing. The bed under him cracking as his wife shifted her position ceaselessly beside him. A thing she did when worried. Due to his desperate need to worry about everything, she had made it clear that he should not interfere. Well, he would not, unless it seemed obvious he needed to.

"Remus?" she said, her voice clearly uneasy, but still rather soft in case her husband had actually been sleeping.

His eyes opened in half a second and he saw her figure descried by the moonlight. However, Remus could not see the lines of worry that etched her face partially concealed by the darkness.

"Yes?"

"The baby's not moving," she confessed the true reason behind her worry as to why she had been shifting positions again and again on the bed. She felt somewhat guilty for not sharing it with her husband.

At that moment, Remus was grateful for the darkness that preceded the sunrise, since it permitted him a short instant to let concern cross his features before becoming the rock that, now and then, she needed him to be. He slid downwards until his face was in front of her swollen stomach and his hand met the one she had so protectively placed there. His lips touched her skin gingerly and his thumb began to carefully rub her, as if he could caress their child.

"Hi, little one," he greeted in a hoarse tone. "How're you doing today? Good, yeah? Getting tight there, isn't it? Mummy's keeping it really warm for you, isn't she? Bet she is. I know, she's perfect, you'll see," he could not help but to grin and although he could not see Dora's face, he was willing to bet anything that hers had curled upwards as well and perhaps followed by her eyes rolling.

"Listen, I know we agreed on you letting her sleep at night, but you don't need to be too quiet, all right? We're actually a bit worried about you, love, but I promise that as soon as you're out here with us, you can sleep for as long as you want. And I can't wait to have you here, but―" He sighed happily. "We'll take very good care of you."

Remus then felt one of his wife's hand running through his hair and the other one taking his and placing it lower on her belly. He hoped to feel whatever was the sign their baby had given her, but nothing seemed different to him. He could only suppose that the baby liked to joke with him as much as his wife did.

"Moved?" he questioned looking up to her.

"Yeah," she answered with a bashful smile, that the first lights of the day illuminated for him.

"I'm sorry to awake you," he added after a short moment and a kiss. "I'm sorry." An avalanche of feelings came rushing inside him at that instant, every tiny little thing that was wrong in the Wizarding World then seemed to be crushing him from the inside out and he let his head fall, supported by his wife's belly as he began to pant. "I'm so sorry, it's _too _dangerous out here―"

"Remus―"

"―but if I could keep you safe there, I swear I would. I'll― _We_ will make this world better for you. We'll take care of you. We'll look after you. We'll― I'm sorry," he put an arm around her waist, clinging to her as though clinging to his own life, "We didn't want to bring you to such― such unsafe place!"

"Remus―" Her fingers slowly but firmly grabbing fistfuls of his hair.

"And if― if you're― if you are… like me…"

"Remus, stop." Her other hand now trying to free herself from his tight grip.

"I'm sorry. I'm _**so **_sorry. We never meant to," his muscles finally relaxed and Remus's forehead fell upon her stomach; a solitaire tear making its way to the tip of his nose and falling on her skin. "We never meant to, princess."

Tonks slid downwards, placing his head on her chest as he allowed himself to take solace in her embrace.

"Stop…" she repeated kissing the top his head before looking down to wipe away the tear path.

And he could see then, that his wife was nearly as sorry for their child's fate as he was. She, too, did not wish for them to live in such hazardous world, she did not wish to give birth to a kid in the middle of the worst war the Wizarding World had ever seen and above all, in spite of everything she said to him every day, she did not wish for their child to suffer from lycanthropy. And under those early sunbeams, with her gaze locked with his, she knew that he saw it all, all her fears, but all her hopes as well. It still amazed him how much she understood him and vice-versa, how much the both of them could connect with no more than a simple look.

"Stop calling our son a princess," Tonks placed her forehead on his as she joked for there was no purpose of saying it all, of repeating everything they had already communicated seconds before.

"I'm not calling our son a princess," Remus smiled, wrapping his arms around her. "I'm calling our daughter a princess," he explained. "Our bold, brave, stubborn daughter."

"But we're having a boy," she foretold. "A chivalrous, courageous, handsome, selfless little boy. One that rather a thousand times to hurt himself than others," she added placing feather kisses upon the scars on his bare chest. "One that'll be proud to say that Remus John Lupin is his Daddy."

"Guess we can't exactly choose now, can we?" he smiled, his thumb rubbing her beaming features.

"No," she replied, shaking her head lightly and holding his cuff affectionately. "We can only love them, no matter what," she stated, her hand coming to rest on her belly.

"No matter what," he repeated, "for now," he added as he intertwined his finger with hers just in time to feel a kick against his palm. "Is that not good enough or…?" he asked, rising an eyebrow.

"That's more than good enough," she assured him.

Remus leisurely moved his hand to cup her cheek, taking in the sight of such marvellous woman opening her heart so easily for him after he too mindlessly had broken.

"Thank you, Dora," he said after a rather long moment of silence.

"For making you see reason about our son? Sure, don't mention it!" she mocked, grinning at her husband.

A fond smile played on the corner of his lips before he guided her face to his, kissing her passionately, trying to put in it just everything he felt for her, taking in all her universe the instant a gasp from her allowed him to deepen the kiss.

For not giving up on him when he deserved the most? For giving him the most precious gift a man could receive? For seeing him as a man and not a monster? For going against everything common sense said? For risking on giving up everything she had? For accepting and loving him as though he was completely normal? A million reasons went through his mind as she shifted her position, her back now fitting comfortably against him as Remus crossed his arms protectively over her front, promising that he would do whatever needed to be done to make that world a better place for them to live in for she had done everything for him and he was grateful.

"For everything."


End file.
